Returns in the UK and EU: what US brands need to know

Yes. For online sales, a consumer in the UK or the EU can cancel within 14 days of receiving the goods without giving a reason, and then has another 14 days to send them back.

This is the law, not a courtesy, so it shapes your returns policy for both markets. The customer can handle the item as they would in a store, unboxing it and trying it on, and you can only deduct from the refund if it has been used or damaged beyond that. In the UK, if you fail to tell customers about this right before they buy, it extends to 12 months.

The customer bears the direct cost of returning goods they have simply changed their mind about, in both the UK and the EU, provided you told them so before they bought. If you didn’t, or you offered free returns, you pay.

You must also refund the original standard delivery charge, though not the extra for a faster option the customer chose. Many brands offer free returns anyway as a selling point; with inventory in the UK or EU, the return is a domestic parcel, which is what makes that affordable.

Within 14 days. In the EU the clock starts when the customer tells you they are cancelling, though you can hold the refund until the goods are back or the customer shows proof of posting; in the UK, the rule is 14 days from getting the item back.

This is where local inventory helps most: a return to our Middlewich or Poland warehouse arrives in days, is checked against your instructions, and your refund decision can follow. A return crossing the Atlantic can take longer than the deadline on its own.

• Returns and rework at the warehouse →

Personalised or made-to-order items, perishable goods, and sealed products that cannot be returned for health or hygiene reasons once opened, among others.

Both the UK and the EU list the same main exceptions: goods made to the customer’s specification or clearly personalised, perishable food and flowers, newspapers and magazines, sealed audio, video or software once unsealed, and sealed items that cannot be returned for health or hygiene reasons once opened, such as underwear. Faulty goods are a separate matter, below.

Faulty goods carry longer rights than change-of-mind returns: in the UK you must repair or replace an item returned as faulty within six months unless you can prove it wasn’t faulty when sold, and in the EU every consumer sale carries a legal guarantee of at least two years.

In the EU the remedies are repair or replacement first, then a price reduction or a refund if those fail, all at no charge to the customer. UK claims can run for up to six years. Returns reported as faulty are checked at the warehouse against your instructions, so you can decide on repair, replacement or write-off with the item in front of someone.

Before the order is placed: how they can cancel and when they lose the right to, who pays return costs, delivery costs and timing, and a standard cancellation form.

Put this in your UK and EU store policies in plain language and in a form the customer can save. It is the cheapest protection you have: the 14-day right is fixed, but the return cost and the exceptions depend on what you said upfront.

Returns come back to the warehouse that holds your inventory, Middlewich for UK orders and Poland for EU orders, where they are checked against your instructions and good stock goes back on the shelf.

You set the rules at onboarding: what counts as resaleable, what gets reworked or repackaged, what is written off, and what you want reported. Because the return never leaves the market it was sold in, there is no customs declaration on the way back and no import charge to recover.

• UK fulfillment for US brands →
• EU fulfillment from Poland →